A few days after the Constitutional Court rejected Ilir Beqaj's request opposing the GJKKO decision of July 6, 2024 that imposed a prison sentence on him, the former Minister of Health reacted from his detention cell.
"You have the cliché that court decisions are not commented on. But, since Albanians win cases at the ECHR (Strasbourg), this is because you also give unjust decisions," Beqaj writes.
"This public communication is only for those judges who voted to dismiss the request."
I filed a request with your Honorable Court on July 1, 2025. According to the previous notice, the hearing was to be held on December 23, 2025, while the notice of rejection of the request was made public on January 28, 2026. That is enough to understand how serious you are in handling the cases you judge. 7 months to assess a security measure. Does it make sense to issue a decision on a security measure 19 months after the first decision was issued? Such a prolonged review loses its function as an effective guarantee. What kind of justice is this? Who needs this kind of delayed justice?
"For you, requests to overturn security measures may be "annoying", they may be "second-rate" compared to other, much more fundamental issues for the rule of law that you judge, but this should not lead you to comparatively more simplistic assessments in cases like mine," the former minister emphasizes.
Beqaj accuses the Constitutional Court of having turned into the fourth instance of the judiciary.
"According to your procedure, we do not have the opportunity to be heard. Your rules prevent us from speaking in person before you. In the 7 months that you have been handling the case, you have not even given us 2 hours of opportunity to speak before you."
I am clear about what the reasoning for rejecting the request will be. It will be very formalistic. Typical reasoning of a fact-based court. But you, honorable, are not the fourth level of the judiciary in Albania.
"You have been back in the fourth instance of trial for years. It has happened day after day. Those members who came from the judiciary have brought this spirit. They have brought the procedural spirit, the excessively long trial and reasoning deadlines," Beqaj said.
The former minister is being tried for the sterilization concession affair, while he is also accused of abusing SASPAK agency funds. He is being held in Durrës detention center.
